HEADLINES

A local public relation firm has rebranded itself.
The firm, founded in 2012 and previously known as Richett Media, officially rolled out its new name, Happy PR, in January.
Emily Richett, founder and lead publicist of the firm, said the company wanted to align with its dream clients and brand, doing the work that will make the most impact.

The Happy PR logo, customized by Conduit Studio, features the letter “h” and the letter “y” as reverses of one another, and they also are used as quotation marks, according to Richett.
The logo does not have a specific color, however, Richett said the main color is black. In addition, John O'Neill, principal at Conduit, curated palettes of eight to 10 complementary and contrasting colors, such as a bright pink with a dark orange background.

“It helps us to be really playful,” Richett said. “We mold and fold our announcements to how we use it in marketing to fit many different scenarios. Sometimes, (if) it is really professional, we use our black. Sometimes, we are really playful and we work with a lot of women-powered brands, we use pink. So, it just depends.”

The firm not only has a new name, but it has undergone some major changes. This year marks one year since the firm opened up its new office, located at 1059 Wealthy St. SE, Suite 202. The office is 2,490 square feet, which is larger than the sublease space the firm formerly occupied in Grand Rapids’ East Hill neighborhood.

In an effort to completely rebrand the firm, Richett said, the team is working with different industries and offering new services. Within the last year, the firm has transitioned into specializing in business-to-consumers public relations and marketing projects, and working with brands in the health/wellness, food/beverage, retail/e-commerce, tourism and entrepreneurship industries.

Sara Moylan is the creator and founder of Shefit, a Michigan-based athletic gear company that has a national presence. Moylan said she began working with the PR firm in May and since then, Richett and her company has helped Shefit cultivate different professional relationships by marketing its products across the country.

“We say we work with ‘happy brands,’” Richett said. “Overall, they make their customers happy, and we help them get their products, services and messages in front of their target audiences.”

Prior to the rebranding process, Richett said the firm was working in a mixture of business-to-business and business-to-consumer in different industries such as manufacturing, accounting firms, nonprofits, political and education sectors.

Richett said Happy PR offers services such as social media marketing, media training, digital marketing, funnel launched and grand opening campaigns. Some of the newly offered services are social media and funnel development.

With a larger office space, Richett said the firm plans on conducting events, quarterly workshops for new PR graduates, an annual event called nonprofit PR school and an online publicity program that services entrepreneurs and startups called AMPLIFY and other industry events.